DA taps citizen watchdogs for farm-to-market roads

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November 3, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) has partnered with civil society groups to ensure the proper implementation and construction of farm-to-market roads (FMRs) projects throughout the country.

The agency said that it has tapped the People’s Budget Coalition, Bisto Proyekto and other citizen watchdogs to scrutinize projects from planning, budget preparations, construction and post-implementation monitoring.

“By completing these projects as intended, we bring greater development to our farmers, fisherfolk, other food producers and more rural areas,” Agriculture Undersecretary Arrey Perez said.

The partnership comes amid questions over inconsistencies in FMR coordinates, where some entries were found to be located in the sea.

The DA has attributed these anomalies to encoding errors, such as missing or transposed digits, rather than deliberate misrepresentation.

The agency has also pursued third-party audits involving state universities and colleges to further inspect FMRs.

“Their engineers and faculty could independently assess road dimensions, pavement thickness and construction quality before contractors receive payment,” it added.

The agency has also allowed local government units to implement FMRs, expanding the available institutions to implement farm road construction projects.

The DA said that the country needs about 131,000 kilometers of FMRs, with about 55,000 kilometers still to be built.

By the end of 2028, the government seeks to complete around 10,000 kilometers or 18 percent of the remaining requirement.

About 4,500 kilometers of the target will be funded by the government.

On the other hand, the remaining 5,500 kilometers, which are valued at P83.4 billion, will be implemented through public-private partnership.